Introducing the Winner of the Bob Franklin Journal Article Award 2018

We are pleased to recognize Dr. Laura Ahva of the University of Tampere, Finland, as the winner of the Bob Franklin Journal Article Award 2018. Read the judging panel's comments below, then read the prize-winning article for free through 31 October 2019.

Comments from Professor Bob Franklin:
“I am delighted that Dr Laura Ahva’s exceptionally insightful ethnographic study of the nuanced, complex and highly variable forms which participation can assume, in digital news organisations in three national settings, was the unanimous choice of the selection panel in this inaugural year of the Award. I know her article will be of great benefit to other scholars in the field of Digital Journalism Studies, provoking their critical reflections, informing their research and winning their appreciation”.

“This study of the ‘in-betweeners’ does not take notions of participation in the digital journalism landscape for granted, but asks critical questions about what such participation means and what it looks like… Methodologically, Ahva spends time ‘on the ground’, observing journalistic practices across different social settings, journalistic contexts and cities and combines ethnography with photography and interviews to arrive at a helpful and persuasive typology of different dimensions of the notion of ‘participation’. .. For reasons of context, topicality, theoretical sophistication and methodological innovation, I recommend that Laura Ahva’s article as the recipient of the Bob Franklin Article Award.”

Dr Ahva’s “article really impressed me because it so deftly combines theoretical richness with empirical heft, building theory but doing it in the context of thick description… Ahva takes a concept (participation) that too often is treated uni-dimensionally and provides a texture to it that is truly remarkable, opening up multiple orientations and possibilities to the term.”

Ahva’s paper “is an excellent example of a successful qualitative study that shows readers how a multi-sited ethnographer collects data, categorizes and analyses them and can draw interesting and robust conclusions.”

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